Keeping busy to pass the time

I had this post mostly prepared with the intention that I'd finish it and post on Thursday night, the day before Derek was scheduled to come home. Only, he surprised me Thursday afternoon calling and saying he was almost home! Needless to say, blogging fell to the bottom of the priority list. ;)

Here's a quick rundown of some of the things that kept us busy while Derek was at annual training, mainly just the things I actually I photographed and haven't already blogged about. 

We visited the local farmer's market one evening and the church across the street had a lady doing face painting. 

We spent several days up at my parent's house and one morning we ventured out to explore a new park!

Dad helped me clean out the van. It REALLY needed some attention. I've managed to keep it clean for two whole weeks! I didn't inventory the items as I cleaned it out because it was far too gross to document, but here's a post from 2010 that might give you an idea. 

The kids and I ventured downtown to visit the library, home to the city block book facade. It's my favorite landmark in Kansas City.

The kids each picked a book from the awesome kid section of the library and they loved exploring the roof patio!

Jackson really wanted to learn how to play chess... I told him that it's a daddy game. :)

Belle went to church as Repunzel

We visited the zoo with some friends

And the kids ended up with more face paint. 

And we met at the park to play with friends!

We kept ourselves busy to pass the time and now we're super glad that Derek is back home. Jackson has filled Daddy in about all sorts of preschool stories and Belle has turned into Daddy's little shadow. We have a low key weekend planned to just hang out and I couldn't be more excited!